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Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs Netwrix Data Classification comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Purview Data Gove...
Ranking in Data Governance
1st
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (10th)
Netwrix Data Classification
Ranking in Data Governance
30th
Average Rating
10.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Microsoft Purview Data Governance is 11.5%, down from 21.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Netwrix Data Classification is 1.4%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Governance Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Purview Data Governance11.5%
Netwrix Data Classification1.4%
Other87.1%
Data Governance
 

Featured Reviews

AS
Tech lead at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Automated data discovery has streamlined management while configuration remains complex
Compared to Big-ID, Microsoft Purview Data Governance looks complicated to me. I do not feel it has a good user-level UI. The interface feels a little complicated compared to Big-ID. I did not appreciate the configuration part. It felt complex, whereas when I went for a Big-ID demo, the interface looked better and was easier to understand for any user.
GF
Isms Manager & Information Systems Security at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Automated data labeling has reduced manual work and supports our privacy compliance needs
We would like to enforce labeling currently in place. If a document is classified as strictly confidential, we want to be able to apply a profile that can cause documents to expire or revoke access anywhere the document is. We need a security feature so that if we have classified a document as strictly confidential and given it to a third party, that document remains strictly confidential. There has to be a way to enforce it and prevent the document from being shared with any other person apart from the person it was sent to. We do not want AI in security products for now, as AI in security products tends to be risky. AI can improve reporting and detection, but it should not execute.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I use the tool in projects as a medium to provide information as reports to the stakeholders."
"I don't know if I've gotten much value out of Purview personally, but our security team loves it. Our biggest concern is leakage or theft of our data because we have a lot of PII and stuff that has not been released. We like the insights Purview provides and the way the solution can track and manage things. I'd say that was probably their favorite piece of it so far. From everything the security team has told me, the policy management and DLP features are working spectacularly."
"I like the integrated tool and integrated benefits in Microsoft Purview Data Governance."
"Microsoft Purview's primary benefit lies in safeguarding sensitive and confidential data, thereby mitigating the risk of internal data exfiltration."
"I think Purview does as good a job...I'll say that it is as stable as the data governance maturity that exists within an organization. It can't be more stable than that."
"The sensitivity labeling is the most valuable feature because it is the foundation for automating the encryption process and ensuring proper data handling across the organization."
"It is pretty early, but the decision to go with this investment was largely driven by the simplification of our information security technology management stack. That is the primary objective. Once you simplify and you have a connected structure, it allows for faster adoption there. It also gives us additional capabilities as we go on using the technology that we are familiar with, and we do not have to depend on outside parties to come in and tell us how to do certain things."
"Microsoft Purview stands out for its automatic data recovery system, which prioritizes critical data for the fastest restoration."
"Netwrix Data Classification Manager finds the data in a very efficient manner, and the efficacy of the solution is very good."
"There is a massive cost saving; it is easy to use, the reporting is clean, and it is simpler to use than the Microsoft DLP solution, Purview."
"It's highly flexible and scalable, offering customers the choice to match their needs and budget."
 

Cons

"While Purview's data connector platform can ingest information from non-Microsoft data sources, it is slow to do so and the information may become outdated."
"Running eDiscovery once a day takes quite a long time because it has to fetch your data. I also want the eDiscovery results to be improved. At the same time, I would like to get a centralized page where I could see records management applied to my Office 365 tenant visualized instead of waiting for a custom script to run through the complete tenant."
"Compared to Big-ID, Microsoft Purview Data Governance looks complicated to me. I do not feel it has a good user-level UI."
"As Microsoft Purview got a little more mature, the deployments got a little more complex, as we were kind of seeing that there are a lot of ways, like there were a hundred ways to do one thing or less."
"The current event-based retention management is very poor."
"Although you can explore the data, that creates a great interest in data lineage or the data flow. How does it go from a source to a platform to a Power BI report, for example? It is possible, to some extent, to see that with Purview, but the lineage feature requires some manual work on the development side or more work from Microsoft to improve on it."
"One of the challenges is that Microsoft changes things so quickly that sometimes you're just playing catch-up, and sometimes these changes aren't communicated effectively."
"I lose a little bit of that control when we're talking about third-party connectors. Compliance-wise, I would like to see more ability to audit from a user perspective, where I could extrapolate what the user was thinking or trying to do."
"Netwrix Data Classification Manager is very good at network data classification, but it also has to work on endpoint data classification because clients ask for it."
"One of the key issues is its interface and querying capabilities, which can be complex, making it difficult to interpret logs."
"We would like to enforce labeling currently in place. If a document is classified as strictly confidential, we want to be able to apply a profile that can cause documents to expire or revoke access anywhere the document is."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention is not cheap."
"The pricing is reasonable because it's part of the 365 E3 or E5 license you buy."
"The price is reasonable because most of our clients already have an E3 license, which makes implementation easy."
"The interesting part is how they are bundling the version into the E5 stack. If it was not for that inclusion, this would have been a difficult conversation for us, so kudos to Microsoft on that. Separating it out may become a problem for customer retention. It is definitely a good move on Microsoft's part to include it as part of any existing or any system upgrades for customers that were on E3."
"There is some competition out there, but the other solutions are quite expensive. They are enterprise tools that are a bit more mature but the license costs $100,000 for some of them. Purview is pay-per-use and a lot of companies are interested in that."
"Microsoft Purview is a subscription-based service, so we need either an E3 or E5 license to use it."
"Microsoft Purview is expensive."
"It's not cheap. I'm not exactly sure how much our license costs, but it is very expensive."
"Netwrix Data Classification Manager has an affordable price."
"The initial pricing might seem reasonable, but costs can quickly escalate when adding components."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Construction Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise32
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Purview?
Microsoft Purview Data Governance is quite affordable compared to other market solutions, which have high initial costs. It allows for a cost-effective start with negligible initial cost. However, ...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Purview?
The features in the actual data governance could be improved, and I think there is room for improvement in the product. We haven't used role-based access control in a complex way; it's somehow embe...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Azure Purview?
We are currently working with Microsoft Purview Data Governance and other Microsoft products. We are using Microsoft Purview Data Governance.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Netwrix Data Classification Manager?
There is a cost increase. When Microsoft moved or divided the features, they also added cost to it. In order to get those features back, we will be paying much more than before to get the same feat...
What needs improvement with Netwrix Data Classification Manager?
We would like to enforce labeling currently in place. If a document is classified as strictly confidential, we want to be able to apply a profile that can cause documents to expire or revoke access...
What is your primary use case for Netwrix Data Classification Manager?
We want to discover documents and classify them automatically rather than manually classifying them. We give them labels from internal to confidential to strictly confidential. That way all the doc...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Purview, MS Azure Purview
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs. Netwrix Data Classification and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,880 professionals have used our research since 2012.